IN light of the spate of service disruptions and other incidents that have plagued SMRT in the past few years, it may be a good idea to privatise the train operator.

Market performance and profitability are primary concerns of publicly listed companies and thus, companies may tend to prioritise efficiency and cost-effectiveness over quality. Safety and reliability are especially paramount for a public transport operator.

Privatising SMRT may therefore be the key to turning things around and allow the train operator to beef up its operations, engineering and maintenance without the distractions and pressure of performing with key profit objective.